Michael Rice: Eurovision is an ‘honour’

Michael Rice says it’s an "honour" to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
The 21-year-old singer will perform as the UK entry at the annual competition which is this year being hosted in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday (18.05.19), and has said he’s thankful that the public voted for him through BBC talent competition ‘Eurovision: You Decide’ as the act they wanted to see at the big final this weekend.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, he said: "I think it’s … from getting the email to audition for the show and the whole process of rehearsing the song and then actually doing the show, it was a bit nerve-wracking. But I’m just glad the UK public voted for me to represent, because it’s an honour."
Michael – who previously won the first series of singing competition ‘All Together Now’ last year – says he’s still "a little bit nervous" about his performance, but is "excited" to show Europe what he’s made of.
He added: "I’m a little bit nervous, because it’s a big stage obviously. I am a little bit nervous, but I’m more excited than anything, and all the hard work’s been building [up to this point]."
The singer has a team of backing singers to help him deliver his moving performance of his song ‘Bigger Than Us’, and has praised the group as "phenomenal", saying they’ve already become close friends despite only having worked together for around two weeks.
He said: "They’re absolutely phenomenal. They are, yeah. It’s weird, because we’ve only been together for like two weeks but you can just see the connections already. We’ve been working together every day, we spend time together, [get a] Chinese [takeaway], McDonald’s together."